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Fear Factory: The Industrialist

Another entry for 2012 Metal album of the year has emerged, FearFactory's latest opus, The Industrialist (Candlelight Music). This concept album is a complete return to the Demanufacture era styled that so many have favored over the years. The Industrialist is nothing short of a Modern Metal instant classic and a call back to the sound that Fear Factory created, in the first place.

Vocalist Burton C. Bell and guitarist Dino Cazares have again teamed up with their long time producer,Rhys Fulber to recreate the back to the beginning, true sound of Fear Factory. The result is a show stopper of a disc that contains 10 dark, eerie and pummeling tracks. The Industrialist is a story that Bell himself explains, "the protagonist(The Industrialist) is the incarnation of all industries in the form of an automaton. The mechanical, technological, and scientific advances through the industrial age led to the creation of The Industrialist. In the story, the automaton becomes sentient as it collects memories with each passing day.Through observation and learning, it gains the will to exist. What was meant to help man, will eventually be man's demise."

CD opener, "The Industrialist", begins with an eerie keyboard background with a spoken word passage that sounds like it would be used in The Terminator movies.The end of days is near! "The Industrialist" sledgehammers into the familiar cadence of the mighty FF's thunderous double kick drum and the almighty staccato picking that could ONLY be Dino Cazares' right hand. Bombastic and at breakneck speed, THIS IS FEAR FACTORY! This is how a Metal record is supposed to begin. Sit down, strap in and shut up! Leadoff single, "Recharger", is next up and does not let up one bit. The ante is being upped already and this is just the 2nd song on the record! BurtonC. Bell turns in what might be his best vocal performance of his already amazingly influential career and Dino Cazares again redefines the guitar tone for Modern Metal. Other All World tracks include the awesome, "New Messiah", "God Eater", with its ominous Kubrick-like opening synth line and "Depraved Mind Murder" that is an all out assault to the senses. The production, is as always the case withFear Factory, is stellar. The soundscapes that silent member Rhys Fulber creates are just genius and make the music all that much more impactful.

THIS is the record that Fear Factory needed to make to help reclaim the throne of the movement that they began. Along with 2010's awesome album, Mechanize ,there is not a weak moment on The Industrialist, from head to toe, all killer and no filler! Demanufacture era fans will especially devour this record, but fans of other eras that make up FF will also love this release. Their percussive and syncopated pounding will over take you, so resistance is futile. Burton C. Bell and Dino Cazares are now working as a duo in the studio (with assistance from Rhys Fulber) as opposed to a quartet as in the past, but the soul of the machine is intact and firing on all cylinders. The Industrialist is be one of the best Metal albums of 2012! Fear Factory is back!


Track Listing

  1. The Industrialist
  2. Recharger
  3. New Messiah
  4. God Eater
  5. Depraved Mind Murder
  6. Virus of Faith
  7. Difference Engine
  8. Dissemble
  9. Religion Is Flawed Because Man Is Flawed
  10. Human Augmentation

Added: June 29th 2012
Reviewer: Butch Jones
Score:
Related Link: Band Website
Hits: 8108
Language: english

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» SoT Staff Roundtable Reviews:

Fear Factory: The Industrialist
Posted by Steven Reid, SoT Staff Writer on 2012-06-28 18:07:15
My Score:

Does it matter if a band has a formula that they rigidly stick to? Well, basically that depends on whether the formula works and if the band deliver it well enough to convince you that you need to have more than one album's worth of similar material. Now deciding on that last factor will undoubtedly be a personal choice. However if there was to be one band that keeps me coming back for more while doggedly refusing to update or evolve, it would be Fear Factory. As with any band, some albums from the double F catalogue are better than others, but with the band's main protagonists, singer Burton C Bell and guitarist Dino Cazares once again teaming up for the utterly convincing Mechanize in 2010, it would appear that Fear Factory are officially firing on all cylinders once more and The Industrialist confirms this to be so.

Now if you've never been seduced by the Factory's precise and constant bass drum barrage, mixture of shouted vocals and super smooth clean singing, or industrial (no pun intended), non organic guitar sound, then this album is never going to convince you otherwise. Actually it never intends to. Fear Factory know who they are writing songs for and they aim to give their fan-base exactly what they want - more of the same. Even the human tales of man working with, railing against and almost becoming machine remains intact, but as with the previous releases from this band, the lyrical content works perfectly with music that tells as much of the story as the words could ever hope to.

As ever in Fear Factory, change remains on the personnel front, with studio drummer John Sankey taking Gene Hoglan's place behind the kit (Mike Heller has subsequently filled the role on a permanent basis), while Cazares handles bass on the album (Matt DeVries is to take Byron Stroud's four-string place in the band going forward). However with the strength of the performances and songs on The Industrialist, Fear Factory sound as solid and together as they ever have. Describing the songs feels a little pointless, as if you have come across the sleek, almost mechanical sound that the band have created on all of their previous releases, then you know exactly what the ceaseless kick drum batter, blast beat explosions, spitting vocals and grinding guitars of "Virus Of Faith", "Difference Engine" and "New Messiah" sounds like. If you haven't, then rest assured that you've been missing out some of the most individual, considered, brutal, yet melodic metal you could hope to find.

When Fear Factory are on top form there are few bands to match them. Fear Factory are undoubtedly bang on top form on The Industrialist!



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